AA Edit | Time to Rebuild India’s Test Team, Look for New Coach

In losing 2-0 to South Africa, Team India has hit a new low in Test cricket. The near invincibility that the team sported historically in home conditions — known to be friendlier to batsmen and spin bowlers — has been shattered now that the Indian men’s team has faced such humiliation just after having been beaten 3-0 by the visiting New Zealanders in 2024. A fifth loss at home in seven Tests in 13 months illustrates the depths the team has plumbed.

With the retirement of three senior performers in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, the team can be said to be in a rebuilding phase during which it came out with some credit in drawing the series in England 2-2 on the back of a stirring run of scores by the captain Shubman Gill. His absence for most part of the two Tests against South Africa was, however, only part of the problem.

Indistinct performances by players who are not specialists cut out for the testing long format, frequent shuffling of the batting order, overreliance in the top order on white ball ‘utility players’ who are exposed as ersatz all-rounders, bowlers of pace and spin who were outshone by the South Africans even on the designer pitch made to the orders of the team management led by chief coach Gautam Gambhir and poor captaincy by Rishabh Pant were the main reasons why Team India tanked like this.

A confused approach rendered many players unsure of their Test places. The chaos caused by strategy that was going so clearly awry was clear as the team sported three wicket-keepers and three left arm spinners in a Test XI. The forced retirement of senior players to complete a predetermined generational shift in the team also led to such a disastrous outcome in home Tests even as Gambhir’s leadership as Test coach stood thoroughly exposed.

Given a free run with choice of support personnel and a big hand in selection of the playing XI by the selectors led by Ajit Agarkar, the appointee seen as one with political influence proved a poor strategist who showed little understanding of Test cricket. To his credit, Gambhir’s experiments with players and their roles and places in the batting order proved successful enough in white ball cricket in which cup events were won. But where strategy and tactics count the most as in Test cricket, Gambhir was the biggest flop show.

Team India was outdone by pace bowler Marco Jansen who showed the restless Indian batsmen’s discomfort with the short ball. They were bested by the likes of Senuran Muthusamy who showed what technique and temperament can help achieve. They were spun out by Simon Harmer who demonstrated what orthodox slow bowling is all about in the conditions with 17 wickets in two Tests while all Indian spinners bowled at a quicker pace to extract turn and bounce.

During the less than effective show by one team there were things said that were unpleasant to the ear which did not conform to civility and decorum. The visiting captain Temba Bavuma was body shamed in being called a “dwarf” by Jasprit Bumrah. The more spirited display by the South Africans, which was in keeping with the status of the current World Test champion, may have emboldened the South African coach Shukri Conrad to say the touring cricketers wanted the Indians “to grovel”, a disparaging phrase in racial terms. As India rebuilds from such a disaster, better behaviour is expected from them as much as we expect a champion team from the rainbow nation to be more sensitive.